KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement lodged an FIR against the Lal Masjid khateeb Maulana Abdul Aziz at a police station here on Sunday for his recent statements and threatening messages against MQM chief Altaf Hussain, party officials said.

Arif Khan Advocate, a member of the MQM’s coordination committee, lodged the FIR at the Azizabad police station. He said a recent video message of Maulana Aziz had put Mr Hussain’s life in danger.

Several party leaders and lawmakers accompanied Mr Khan.

Quoting from the FIR, an MQM statement said: “Besides, the threatening tone of Maulana Aziz had hurt the feelings of millions of admirers of Altaf Hussain.”

The MQM leadership referred to certain messages and statements on social media attributed to Maulana Aziz, which it said contained hate speech.

Meanwhile, the MQM organised rallies and processions in various parts of the country, demanding arrest of Maulana Aziz.

Demonstrations held in various cities

The demonstrators criticised the cleric for refusing to condemn the killers of the students of Army Public School in Peshawar.

At one such demonstration in Karachi, speakers alleged that Maulana Aziz was the ‘solicitor of Islamic State (militant group) in Pakistan, closest ally of the Taliban, an inspiration to suicide bombers and the devil’s advocate’.

They demanded his arrest for issuing ‘threats’ against Altaf Hussain.

Similar protests were held in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Badin, Lahore, Multan, Quetta, etc.

Altaf Hussain in a statement declared the video message released by Maulana Aziz on Saturday as ‘totally false, shameless and condemnable’.

The MQM chief said he had urged the government to demolish the Lal Masjid and close Jama-i-Hafsa seminary for the same reason that had been cited for demolition of Masjid al-Darrar.

“Un-Islamic acts, teachings and preaching were being carried out and are still continuing in this (Lal) mosque, even today. Maulana Abdul Aziz released a video message in response to my demand on Saturday evening that is not only threatening but deceptive and a pack of lies and the derogatory language he has used is totally inappropriate, shameless and condemnable,” Mr Hussain said.

Published in Dawn December 22th , 2014